Those chilling words were delivered by Ramzi Binalshibh through a translator at the close of the first day of the pre-trail military hearing at Guantanamo Bay. Mr Binalshibh is one of the five men accused of plotting the attacks on the US on 11 September 2001.

Since the terrorist assaults began in Mumbai last week, the metaphor of the World Trade Center attacks has been repeatedly invoked. From New Delhi to New York, pundits and TV commentators have insisted that “this is India’s 9/11” and should be treated as such. Nearly every newspaper in India has put “9/11” into its post-massacre headlines. The secretary general of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the leading Hindu nationalist political faction, has not only likened the Mumbai attack to those on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but has insisted that “our response must be close to what the American response was.”